About this website

This website initially (2006) started as a blog called "Transcaucasus" (www.transcaucasian.blogspot.com). Its name, "batsav", means "a Bats person" in Batsbur, an almost extinct North Caucasian language related to Chechen and Ingush and which is still (just) spoken by a handful of people in the village of Zemo Alvani in Eastern Georgia (Akhmeta region).

Clicking on "The Batsbi?" above will take you to a page devoted to them, whilst "Other Peoples" will lead you to a long list of information on many other peoples and communities of the Caucasus. Over the years I have also published much information which I thought useful or interesting—an index of sorts can be found on "Resources & links"—and have collected many old photographs in Zemo Alvani itself.